BusinessLive reports that Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula says the government scrapped plans to add the cost of e-tolls to the fuel levy after things became “messy”.
Addressing the media on Thursday, Mbalula said the cabinet abandoned the plan after Russia invaded Ukraine, which led to record fuel prices. He indicated that a final decision on the future of e-tolls would be announced in October when Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana delivers the medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS). Mbalula noted he had made “a lot of promises and concessions” regarding e-tolls when he was “almost certain” a decision would be delivered. “That was last year, when Tito Mboweni was minister of finance, and now it’s Godongwana. So this one is certain, we agreed last week. Our teams are working on the issues before we make a final decision,” Mbalula indicated. The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) last week called for the R1.50 fuel levy relief to be extended for July. The fuel levy reprieve of R1.50 per litre has been in place for April, May and June. “Should Godongwana reduce this to a reprieve of 75c per litre from July 6 to August 2, as planned, we can expect a petrol price increase of around R2.50 in July, pushing the price of 95 octane inland from R24.17 per litre to around R26.70,” Outa noted. The organisation said Godongwana should not reduce the fuel levy reprieve to 75c in July, but wait until geopolitical factors, combined with an improvement in the rand exchange rate, could bring about a significant reduction in the price of petrol.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Unathi Nkanjeni at BusinessLive
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